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My trip to Bolivia

A

Anthroman

Joined
Sep 6, 2002
Messages
120
I spent a large part of the last year and a half living and working on my PhD thesis in lowland bolivia, and a fair amount of that time, living with one of the indigenious groups there. Before I left I asked for some suggestions for knives here on the main board. That is the reason why I'm posting this here instead of in one of the other areas. My apologizes if this seems a bit off topic for this area. I thought I'd just let people here know how things went and what I ended up using.

Overall I had a really great time and got alot of work done. My spanish has certainly improved greatly. This past Jan, Feb, and March things were pretty flooded most of the time, so that made traveling a whole lot more interesting. But still fun (at least in retrospect...).

I ended up taking two buck knives (which someone from the board was kind enough to give me), a swiss army knife, and a spyderco delica. I brought a spyderco sharpmaker to sharpen my knives while I was there (which worked great). I also bought a tramontina machete and file to sharpen it with while I was there. I probably ended up carrying the delica the most, using it for small daily chores (cutting cord, fruit, etc...). The machete was used heavily, particularly for cleaning up the area around my house and latrine, as well as for fire wood (when I needed it). It also got alot of use by my translator and other indigenious people for various work on house repairs. The buck knives ended up getting alot of use in the "kitchen", paricularly in cutting up game that people would trade with me. One of those ended up getting stolen about six months in, but the other one served me pretty well the entire time. The swiss army knife was used pretty much daily as a can openner, although I also got use out of the small saw on it and cork screw. It was one of the bigger model SAKs and I didn't use half the things on it, but I got it for free from Victorinox, and I was glad to have it.

If anyone ever travels to Bolivia (and this probably applies to ther south american countries), I'd suggest buying your mosquito net and probably most of the medicines you'll think that you will need there. The mosquito nets there tend to have finer mesh then any you find in the states for much cheaper prices. The cheaper prices definately goes for the medicine as well. Also bring an LED flashlight that uses AA batteries and a lighter if your able too (bolivian lighters break very easily).
Anyways here's photos for those who might be interested:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/aamiller78/album?.dir=/6209&.src=ph&.tok=phG5IuEBmMfuyAUt

Thanks again for anyone who happened to make suggestions on what knives I should bring. A lot of post on this board helped me decide on other gear to bring as well, so thank you all.
--Anthroman
 
Very interesting - thanks. The various critters the kids were holding were pets, I assume?
 
Those pics are amazing! looks like you had a wonderful trip!
What did you go there to study?
 
I enjoyed the slide show. What were you doing your PhD research on? The time of your life!

Did you have a generator? How close were you to a town or village? Access to your living location by water only? Water supply; bottled only? I spent about 6 months in Colombia with about half of that time being spent is a village where no one spoke english. I stayed in a residencia in the village most of the time with jaunts by jeep or water out to the work areas. Other half of the time was spent in relative luxury in cities.
 
All the animals in the photos were pets. The cats and dogs will stay that way, the other animals will probably get killed off (possibly eaten) at some point, as some of them tend to get a little less playful. I was in Bolivia working on my Phd thesis in anthropology, studying the transition from hunter/gather/horticulturalist to greater involvement in the market (buying goods and working in wage labor) and how it effects their health. The majority of the people I was working with did not speak spanish as their primary language, most of them using their own indigenious language day to day and many of them not knowning any spanish. So I relied pretty heavily on translator/guide/research assitant.

While I was in the communities working I did not have a generator. Part of the time I had a solar panel with a car battery to run a laptop and some other equipment, as well as a light. I actually didn't use the light that much, as I ended up going to bed most nights around 8:30/9:00 (to dark to do much and too many bugs). I worked in three different communities, the two closest communities I could reach by taxi or moto (basically scooter) in the dry season (45 minute trip to the closest and about an hour and a half trip to the other one) and a combo of moto and hiking in the wet season (which took considerable longer). The 3rd and farthest community was an hour long taxi ride to the canoe port and another 4 to 6 hours up river (with a canoe that had a motor attached). During the wet season travel up river without a motor would probably take most of day and would not be much fun. Traveling down river however was fairly rapid, even without a motor.
During the dry season it was possible to hike out of this community but it would take about 4 to 5 hours of pretty rough travel.

When I would stay long periods (4 to 6 weeks) in the communities I would usually filter my water. I had a general ecology first need filter that worked well with well water in one community and with a small spring that had very nice cool, clear water in one of the other communites. It tended to not work so well with river water, which I usually collected and then let the bigger particles settle out, afterwhich I either boiled or used iodine on it if I was in a rush.
The town I was based in and would travel to the communities from was a medium sized town, but definately not the place any tourist would want to visit and in fact the lonely planet description of it is not in the least bit flattering. The worst part about it was that it would often get power outages in the part of the town in which I lived during the wet season. The power grid system was strange so that my house didn't have power, but the house right next door of us did. Living their did grow on me a little, but there was two places to eat in town, and they pretty much served the same thing, so eating was rather dull. I usually had a much better time either in the communities or the couple times I traveled to the bigger cities.

I'm glad you all liked photos. It was definately interesting experience :D .
 
I used to have a girlfriend named Olivia. Man, I'd like to take a trip back there. I'd take some photos really worth talking about.
 
I am glad you posted your post trip knife use and the extra info.

Good luck on your thesis, sounds like a great work-pleasure balance.
 
Enjoyed the pics. It sure looks swampy (mom and girl standing ankle deep in water).

What is Bolivia famous for? How'd it come about? Is it all that primitive?
 
Thanks for the info, Anthroman. That sounds intriguing, and makes me itch to get back into the academic world. :)
Good luck with your research. It sounds like your thesis will be exceptional.
 
The swampy look is because it was the wet season, and that particularly community just got hit really hard (they had alot of lagoons). During the dry season most of that is much, much dryer. One of the buck knives was a special 119. The other one that got stolen was a smaller fixed blade, I'm not sure what the model was. The swiss army knife I had was the explorer plus, I also bought a Spartan in Bolivia as an EDC in one of the large cities.

Bolivia is most well know for its highland regions (La Paz), it alpaca production, and historically its silver and other mineral mining. It is also well known for its coca production (the plant that cocaine is made from). Traditionally they chew it or drink it as a tea. It's use is very engrained in the traditional culture and one of their new president's goals is to expand coca production and fight US coca eradication policies. Bolivia kind of started out as the south american middle child, acting as a buffer between waring conquestidors, but when they found rich supplies of silver, its development and worth increased greatly.
I found that many people who visit south america don't plan on spending much time in bolivia, but really end up falling in love with it when they do. Overall much of bolivia population retains strong ties to its heritage, with many people still speaking Aymara and Quecha. The group I was working with is fairly traditional and didn't really see alot of outside influence until 60's and 70's. This was mainly due to the rather low development of the lowland area in which they lived, offering them a fairly high level of isolation. Many of the men (30s and 40s ) I interviewed were the last of their generation to learn how to create a fire without matches or lighter. The younger men didn't really have any idea. They still hunt and fish, many of them using bow and arrow, while some using rifle and shot gun. Most of Bolivia isn't like this at all.

The larger cities are fairly modern and comparable to other South American cities, although I wouldn't drink the water in most of them (Santa Cruz being the exception). Many of the smaller cities and towns use open sewers and are considerably less developed. Most of the larger towns had internet at least in one or two places and the majority of people I met in cities and larger towns had cell phones (as it was a less expensive and quicker option then getting a home phone). Many of the roads within the country are underdeveloped, making travel in the wet season long and difficult. The town I was based in had a small airport, so I was lucky enough to be able to fly out during the wet season when I needed to visit a larger city. Bolivian food was not all that great, however they make these meat and potato pockets call Saltenas that I did fall in love with. The people are very friendly, although notorious for being late for appointments or meetings. I would say Bolivia has a reputation for being one of the safest of all South American countries for travelers. Normally if you get robbed there it is a scam and not something violent. A group tried to scam me once and I got out of the situation safe and sound, with all of my belongings. I'd recommend it as a good place to visit.
 
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